Conventionally, as a continuous deposition apparatus for continuously depositing a thin coating on a surface of a film substrate on which the coating is to be deposited, the film substrate being formed by a long film or sheet made of plastic or an inorganic matter, there is an apparatus provided with a vacuum chamber, means for continuously conveying the film substrate in this vacuum chamber, and means for depositing various functional thin coatings on a surface of the film substrate to be conveyed by sputtering or vapor deposition. In the continuous deposition apparatus of this type, there is a need for performing maintenance and arrangement operations such as replacement of an evaporation source such as a sputtering source, replacement and cleaning of a mask partitioning a film formation area, and replacement and feeding of the material for each batch processing.
In recent years, there are variously proposed continuous deposition apparatuses in which the above operations are easily performed and only small space is required for installation. For example, Patent Documents 1 and 2 describe a continuous deposition apparatus including a vacuum chamber and evaporation sources of a deposition material, wherein the vacuum chamber has a chamber main body and side walls, the side walls are openable relative to the chamber main body as side door sections, and the evaporation sources are attached to the side walls.
As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, this continuous deposition apparatus is provided with a vacuum chamber 101 installed on a lower frame 30, evaporation sources 7L, 7R provided in this vacuum chamber 101.
The vacuum chamber 101 is formed by a chamber main body 15, and side walls 25, 26. The chamber main body 15 has a back wall 21, a front wall 22 arranged so as to face this, and an upper wall 23 and a lower wall 24 respectively coupling upper ends and lower ends of the back wall 21 and the front wall 22, and forms a frame shape with left and right openings. The side walls 25, 26 form left and right evaporation source door sections 16L, 16R for openably closing the left and right openings of the chamber main body 15. These evaporation source door sections 16L, 16R are respectively openably coupled to the chamber main body 15 by hinge mechanisms 27 provided in side ends of the back wall 21, so as to seal the chamber main body 15 when closed.
In the vacuum chamber 101, a partition wall plate 41 roughly dividing the inside thereof into the upper and lower sides is provided. A deposition roller 2 is rotatably provided in a lower part in the vacuum chamber 101. A film serving as a substrate on which a coating is to be deposited is wound around this deposition roller 2, and this film is conveyed at fixed speed by rotation of the deposition roller 2.
Meanwhile, in an upper part in the vacuum chamber 101, a feeding unit 3 and a take-up unit 4 are provided, and in addition, a plurality of guide rollers 5 and a plurality of guide rollers 6 are respectively rotatably provided. The guide rollers 5 convey the film substrate before the coating is deposited thereon fed out from the feeding unit 3 to the side of the deposition roller 2, and the guide rollers 6 convey the film substrate after the coating is deposited thereon from the deposition roller 2 to the side of the take-up unit 4.
In the lower part in the vacuum chamber 101, in addition to the deposition roller 2, the evaporation sources 7L, 7R are provided so as to be positioned on the left and right sides of the deposition roller 2. An exhaust pump 10 for evacuating the upper part in this vacuum chamber 101 is provided in the upper part of the vacuum chamber 101. In general, a tension measurement mechanism provided with a measurement element such as a load cell is additionally provided in part of the guide rollers 5, 6.
The feeding unit 3 and the take-up unit 4 respectively have rotation shafts and cores provided detachably on the rotation shafts, the cores around which the film substrate is wound. Meanwhile, rotation drive sections detachably and rotatably supporting the rotation shafts are provided in the back wall 21 and the front wall 22. The deposition roller 2 and the guide rollers 5, 6 are rotatably supported by the back wall 21 and the front wall 22. The evaporation sources 7L, 7R are detachably attached to the side walls 25, 26, that is, the side door sections 16L, 16R.
At the time of starting deposition operation, while the film substrate before the coating is deposited thereon is fully wound around the core of the feeding unit 3 into a coil shape, the core of the take-up unit 4 is blank and the film substrate after the coating is deposited thereon is not yet wound around the core. After the inside of the vacuum chamber 101 is pumped down to a vacuum state, the film wound around the core of the feeding unit 3 is continuously supplied to the deposition roller 2 via the guide rollers 5. After the coating is deposited on an outer peripheral surface of the deposition roller 2, the film is again taken up by the core provided in the take-up unit 4 via the guide rollers 6 on the side of the take-up unit. At this time, the tension measurement mechanism additionally provided in the guide roller detects tension of the film substrate. The detected value is fed back to the rotation drive sections, so that torque of the rotation shafts of the feeding unit and the take-up unit are controlled. Thereby, predetermined tension is applied to the film substrate.
After the deposition operation is finished, the left and right evaporation source door sections 16L, 16R are opened, and the evaporation sources 7L, 7R additionally provided in these evaporation source door sections 16L, 16R are pulled out of the chamber. In this state, maintenance and replacement of the evaporation sources 7L, 7R are performed. The blank feeding unit 3 and the fully wound take-up unit 4 are carried out from the evaporation source door sections, and new units are carried in instead of these. Such carrying operations of the feeding unit 3 and the take-up unit 4 are called as unit replacement operations in this specification.
The evaporation source door sections of the vacuum chamber 101 are not necessarily the side walls 25, 26 but may be formed by left and right divided sections for example divided from a center part of the vacuum chamber 101 as shown in FIG. 7, for example. Specifically, the vacuum chamber 101 shown in FIG. 7 is divided into a left divided section 34L, a center divided section 33, and a right divided section 34R, and the left divided section 34L and the right divided section 34R respectively form the left and right evaporation source door sections 16L, 16R. The center divided section 33 and the left divided section 34L are divided from each other by a first division surface 31 passing through one side end of the back wall 21, one side part of the front wall 22, the upper wall 23, and the lower wall 24. The center divided section 33 and the right divided section 34R are divided from each other by a second division surface 32 passing through the other side end of the back wall 21, the other side part of the front wall 22, the upper wall 23, and the lower wall 24.
In the vacuum chamber 101 of this type, since areas of openings opened and closed by the evaporation source door sections are large, workability of the maintenance and the like is more improved. The continuous deposition apparatus shown in FIG. 7 and the continuous deposition apparatus shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 are collectively called as a continuous deposition apparatus of a both-side opening type.
The continuous deposition apparatus of the both-side opening type is excellent in space efficiency and a maintenance property. However, it is sometimes difficult to perform the unit replacement operations of carrying the feeding unit and the take-up unit out of and into the vacuum chamber 101 at the time of supplying the substrate such as the film and collecting the film substrate after the coating is deposited thereon. Specifically, the unit replacement operations are performed through the side openings opened by opening the evaporation source door sections. However, since the feeding unit or the take-up unit is provided in the upper part of the vacuum chamber, the replacement operations of bringing these units out and in through the side openings are sometimes not easily performed.
It is thought that for the unit replacement operations, the feeding unit and the take-up unit are arranged so as to be pulled out from the vacuum chamber in the parallel direction to the rotation shafts thereof. However, in order to pull out the units in the axial direction in such a way, there is a need for ensuring wide space for pulling out rolls of the units at a high position in the upper part of the vacuum chamber in which the units are arranged. It is also difficult to pull out and install the rolls from and into the vacuum chamber at high place.